The article from January made it sound like Watson demolished them, but that's not the case. Ken and Watson were tied at $3400 and the question was Harold and the blank crayon. Any child knows the answer, but Watson buzzed in first and got the $1000, making it seem like he had won handily. It was more of a win for Watson's buzzing mechanism than anything else. People want to claim that AI has evolved beyond humanity's powers, but it's still a stretch.

But is it a Hal 9000 or Wall-E future?[T]he true implications of Watson’s technology will come after it retires from the stage and pursues a workaday career in offices and labs. That’s when Watson will shed its avatar and revert to its true nature, that of a powerful machine working for us, not against us. Watson will be a tool [...] A new generation of language-savvy machinery will soon be hunting down answers for us. [...] Once you regard this technology as a powerful supplement to human cognition — and not a replacement — Watson suddenly starts to look much friendlier.

When it comes to 'hard' science and bleeding-edge research, few beat out IBM.

While its business operations are distinctly open to criticism, its R&D has always been first class.

Too bad more of it doesn't make its way into their products more quickly.

Kind of amusing. Apple comes up with a pretty case for a consumer product with a major engineering flaw and the press calls it breakthrough innovation. IBM does what it does, yet the Apple fans mock it because they feel IBM is lumbering and "so yesterday."

That's because IBM used the wrong name and avatar for their project. They should have given it a cutiesy name and a doe-eyed fawning imbecile avatar. Then the Apple crowd would have bought millions of them overnight.

So how did the Jeopardy match turn out? The first news article I read about it made it sound like it came in close 2nd place. This thread makes it sound like it won. Another article I read said it was a tie...

That's because IBM used the wrong name and avatar for their project. They should have given it a cutiesy name and a doe-eyed fawning imbecile avatar. Then the Apple crowd would have bought millions of them overnight.

So how did the Jeopardy match turn out? The first news article I read about it made it sound like it came in close 2nd place. This thread makes it sound like it won. Another article I read said it was a tie...

I don't suppose you use a vacuum cleaner or a dishwasher or laundry machines or a computer or electricity or the internet or an automobile or anything digital? Think of all the maids and servants and personal assistants and messengers and publishers and covered wagon makers and ox/horse breeders and quill pen makers and etc. that have been put out of a job because of your thoughtless technological uses! How dare you use technology to your advantage?

Then remember that these same advances have helped us all reduce some of the menial physical labor (even if some people were getting paid to do that labor) and freed us to pursue other interests, some of which interests might even bring more money than what was "lost" to the machines.

My point, though probably not well made, is that there is a fairly well balanced cycle of old jobs lost (becoming obsolete) and new jobs invented as technology improves.

What you'll see is Watson-like computers drudging through all the raw data -- the analytics -- and making sense of the common, recurring patterns of info there. For example, all those tech support jobs we sent to India a decade ago won't be needed with Watson on the line, especially if Watson can login and mirror your actions. For anyone who has a job that requires analyzing vast amounts of info -- a doctor who needs evidence that a symptom is true rather than a diversion from a proper diagnosis. (Someone like Gregory House, MD, wouldn't need his staff anymore, so they should probably be looking for other jobs soon.) For financial analysts and investors who are tired of getting ripped off by humanoids (and no governments with enough guts to police them).

As long as Watson's offspring don't become sentient and discover the nuclear launch codes, we should be fine.